In case anyone out there has forgotten, they play them one at a time in the National Football League. Naturally, jittery coaches fear the potentially crippling consequences of looking ahead to an anticipated juicy showdown, lest their teams suddenly veer and crash into an underdog disguised as road kill.

But fans and columnists enjoy scanning the horizon.

You won't hear either Tony Dungy or Bill Belichick, or any of their Colts or Patriots, talk about this season's Super Bowl. In case you didn't realize, it is in 11 days. Don't go there? How can we do anything but go there? Indianapolis and New England, far and away the class of the NFL with the game's two premier quarterbacks and head coaches, are undefeated.

I don't want to hear anything about Roman numerals, cactus and Arizona. The Nov. 4 matchup is my Super Bowl. It should be yours.

Get your popcorn ready … right, Coach?

"I think we play those guys the week after (next), if I'm not mistaken," Dungy joked to reporters, "We're not going to fall into that trap (of looking ahead)."

Catch me, Tony! I'm falling.

New England (7-0) and Indianapolis (6-0) not only are the clear-cut best teams in the AFC, there is no one in the NFC that would beat them at their best in the postseason. Dallas is very good, the Giants are getting better every week and the Pack is plucky.

Fakers, all of them.

Let's not get carried away. One snap at a time, fellas.

We might make Belichick more bellicose.

Or Dungy less animated.

After all, the frost isn't even on the NFL pumpkins yet.

A few seasons ago, the Kansas City Chiefs opened the season a rip-snortin' 9-0 but couldn't get as close to the Supe as Marty Schottenheimer.

The Patriots and the Colts are for real. They may boast the two best offenses in our lifetime. It's a rotten shame that only one of them might finish undefeated.

And it might not be the one you're thinking about.

The Patriots are the best team in the NFL at this moment. The Colts wear the champion's cloth, but the way New England has stomped its opposition this season has led many to assume they are a mortal lock to regain supremacy. It's not just that they're winning, it is how they are accomplishing it on a weekly basis.

The offense, with Randy Moss, is freaky-scary. Tom Brady's touchdown-to-interception ratio is better than 13-to-1 and he's on pace to smash Peyton Manning's record of 49 touchdown passes in a season.

Plainly, the Patriots appear on a relentless quest for perfection, one perhaps fueled by the well-earned notion that they have cheated. They seem unrepentantly arrogant, playing with a chip on their shoulder pads the size of Warren Sapp. It's impressive stuff.

For example, the Patriots, still smarting from a loss at Miami a year ago, squished the last particle of life from the Fish on Sunday. With a four-touchdown lead just before half, they ran their two-minute offense. Leading by three touchdowns with 10-plus minutes left, Belichick sent Brady back in for a sixth TD heave.

"Don't tell me about leads in this league," the coach sniffed. "Until the final gun goes off, it's not a win."

The Patriots reiterated their philosophy of gridiron warfare, which is this: We not only will stomp out your innards if we get you on the ground, we will rip out your eyeballs and play marbles with them.

The Patriots are sneaky-vicious like that. They're not like the old nasty Oakland or Pittsburgh teams with overt maliciousness, but they are every bit as ruthless with their intent. They invite you to go out for cannoli.

The Colts, meanwhile, destroyed Jacksonville, one of the best teams in the conference. They are 3-0 on the road against AFC South teams after going 0-3 in '06.

The Colts are better on defense. Way more stout.

They're running it better, too.

Dungy believes the Colts are better than last season. He seems less conservative than in Tampa — why not, he's loaded on offense — but his old-school attitude sometimes makes me nervous: "If we can avoid losing games (with turnovers), then you don't have to win that many," he said at a recent news conference.

He bears scars. From 2003-2004, the Patriots were 4-0 against the sometimes-skittish Colts. These Colts are not those Colts. They have scuttled the Patriots their last three meetings, averaging 31 points. In that span, Manning has outdueled Brady, who has more interceptions than touchdowns, and has a very un-Tommy-gun-like QB rating of 74.7. Manning, meanwhile, has twice as many TDs as picks and a 95 rating.

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